<p>Bay, believe it or not, I have heard of kids who send their work-study earnings home to their families. It could be that was the month mom got fired for being late for work because she lacked transportation, and the rent is already behind, and they shouldn’t have to send it home, but they do.</p>
<p>It may not happen at colleges where students are required to live on campus, but at some colleges, there are students who are homeless WHILE they’re in college, not just before they get there.</p>
<p>[Hearst</a> Journalism Awards Program](<a href=“http://www.hearstfdn.org/hearst_journalism/competitions.php?type=Writing&year=2007&id=3]Hearst”>http://www.hearstfdn.org/hearst_journalism/competitions.php?type=Writing&year=2007&id=3)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would have sympathy for him if he couldn’t graduate due to family obligations or something like that. If he couldn’t go to Toad’s, not really.</p>
<p>As far as the Harvard-Yale game at Harvard, there are student busses that go there, no? And don’t a lot of kids stay in the host college’s dorms? That is what I recall from my kids.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I can believe this might happen, but it is probably rare. I don’t want to expend a ton of energy arguing about hypothetical poor kids who don’t have a cent to spend at a college if they don’t really exist in numbers worth debating.</p>
<p>Bay, my husband was pretty close to it. He was an international student on full scholarship. Although he was invited to soccer pre-seasons he arrived 2 days late because his Foreign Fulbright ticket was for standby only and he didn’t make it onto the plane for 3 days. He’s extremely appreciative of the opportunity the school gave him to attend for free, and in particular for the way the school stepped up when, the month before school started, his home country’s currency was devalued and in one fell swoop the family lost half of the money they were expecting to use for his non R&B living expenses. The school paid for his books and fees for the 4 years he was there and helped him get to and from home.
The dean at our college had a small discretionary fund he used to help students like my husband who came from warm weather places buy winter jackets. DH did have a WS job but he used the funds to pay for the basics like laundry and toiletries so he didn’t have much left over for things like dating. We did a lot of cheap dates like campus movies and hanging out with friends.</p>
<p>Sue,
My first college BF was one of 11 children of a sausage factory worker. He was on full scholarship and owned two pairs of jeans, a couple of tshirts and a bike. We had a lot of fun without $$ (since my parents didn’t give me any that I remember). He is a doctor now.</p>
<p>The article I linked earlier was also about a bright homeless girl that ended up attending college on Financial Aid. Her issues had nothing to do with going to parties or joining Greek organizations (her college has none) The fact that this is what people think of just shows people’s privilege. Here are a few of the worries she shared, and a classmate of mine (who lived in an unheated trailer in the woods in rural Maine) also mentioned. </p>
<p>1) Workstudy is meant to cover books. That’s it. It doesn’t always. (especially for STEM folks, who usually have exceptionally expensive books) And, if you just spent your summer earnings on fees or sheets for your dorm bed, you won’t have anything to buy your first semester books. </p>
<p>2) It’s not about feeling sad because your hallmate is skiing in Switzerland over break and you have to go home. It’s about feeling sad because your other hallmate is excited to go home and you’ve aged out of the foster care system and your only Christmas vacation option is a homeless shelter. </p>
<p>3) Similarly, some kids get to work in excellent but non-paying internships over the summer and are subsidized to do so by their parents. That’s a big benefit, to get the work experience and the experience of perhaps living in an apartment and fending for oneself briefly. Most other kids don’t get that boost for their futures, they go home, live with their parents, and work to save money for school in the fall. The truly poor kids we’re talking about here work all summer and don’t end up with much saved, because they have to pay for room and board and/or contribute their summer earnings to the family. </p>
<p>I’ve never met a kid on aid who was ungrateful for their opportunities. I have met many full pay kids who are, though. </p>
<p>I swear, half the posts on this thread read like the next line will be “ARE THERE NO PRISONS? ARE THERE NO WORKHOUSES?”</p>
<p>"TexasPG, you might want to disregard what I say, since I’m one of those people who cares about The New Yorker, but I would suggest that anyone who loudly proclaims the cost of a trip they took to acquaintances is a boor. "</p>
<p>Not sure what this is in reference to. If it is in reference to the cost of vacation, you are probably painting your own scenario since that is not how the cost of the vacation came out (or imagination of someone who reads New Yorker? :)). </p>
<p>However, the question I raised was why we should consider that only rich take expensive vacations.</p>
<p>+++++++BossyMommy.</p>
<p>“you’ve aged out of the foster care system and your only Christmas vacation option is a homeless shelter”</p>
<p>I do wonder about this one. Most schools kick people out of the dorms during Christmas break. What happens to someone with no place to go to?</p>
<p>From the article one of the challenges listed is: “eating alone in at the dining hall on a Friday night when friends are eating out somewhere they can’t afford.”</p>
<p>They are getting an education that costs around 50-60k a year in an exclusive and highly selective institution and this is what they view as a challenge?</p>
<p>In the case of the student I learned about, the college ultimately learned from her experience and set in place some options for these students to either stay on campus over break, or to be hosted by local alumni or staff families. In her case initially, the school was unprepared for the situation, and the student was so overwhelmed that she dropped out. A professor who had really taken notice of her talent then sought her out and encouraged her to come back, helping her to navigate the system and enlisting the Dean of Financial Services and others in coming up with ways the college could better help first generation and very economically poor students. (They set up an open school supply closet, for example)</p>
<p>ccdaddio: It’s one of many challenges, obviously. Why is it so hard to find a little sympathy for people? I just don’t understand the coldhearted attitude some people here are exhibiting.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>SHE set it up, according to the article you posted. She really seems to have left a legacy behind her at Colby.</p>
<p>sally305. It is a matter of perspective. </p>
<p>I am sure that the middle class student feels bad and is challenged that they have to do their own laundry when the middle rich kid sends it out to a service. I am sure that the middle-rich kid has a challenge and feels bad that he can’t go to Switzerland with his really rich friends over the holiday, and the really rich kid feels bad that they have to fly first class when their uber rich kids get to fly private. I have sympathy for them too, no one likes other people to feel bad, but I don’t see them as challenges.</p>
<p>It isn’t about being cold hearted. It is about perspective.</p>
<p>The difference is that an elite school campus is a much more artificial and homogeneous community than what one finds most anywhere else, and the student may not be able to leave it to find other support systems or more familiar environments where he feels comfortable. For example, when I was in college I sometimes attended an off-campus urban church where people did not have means either. It helped keep things in perspective for me, and helped me remember that out in the wider world, there were others like me who were not well-to-do either.</p>
<p>I read here on CC about the value of making connections and networking as one of the things that sets the very top colleges apart. I read that a lot, actually. I read how some of your children were able to make those connections at those schools, and how those connections made all the difference. </p>
<p>So for a child who comes to those top colleges, already at something of a disadvantage due to poverty, family background, lack of roll models, etc., to be cut off from the informal social aspects of the college, but to be told to be thankful you are there, and enjoy your meal alone while the rest of us go to Toads… Well that puts yet another dense wall between the student and opportunity. I don’t know why that is so hard to understand.</p>
<p>In real life outside of college, much of the real networking, the real transfer of inside knowledge, sharing about who’s hiring and where a great job opening will be, the real “talk” … Much of that goes on outside our formal places of work, doesn’t it? </p>
<p>It is a bit like telling the newbie who thought he had been hired on equal footing with eight other new hires at Google to “Be happy you’re here, and never mind that the rest of us are taking a little field trip this afternoon. Just be thankful you work here.”</p>
<p>Tough crowd here. I’m just surprised that some usually rational and kind people can’t separate the middle class kid who has to watch their budget and make sure that their work study earnings cover all their books, incidentals, etc. (but if there were an emergency- their parents have a credit card and can be called to help bail them out) vs. a kid with no financial safety net whatsoever.</p>
<p>I don’t worry about the middle class kid and the Christmas gift exchange, the ski trips, etc. That’s a matter of perspective, of figuring out how to navigate a social world which is unfamiliar. But a kid from a truly disadvantaged background… really? Even if you begrudge the kid regular dental visits, you don’t feel a scintilla of empathy?</p>
<p>eastcoascrazy wrote: to be cut off from the informal social aspects of the college, but to be told to be thankful you are there, and enjoy your meal alone while the rest of us go to Toads… Well that puts yet another dense wall between the student and opportunity. I don’t know why that is so hard to understand.</p>
<p>It is hard to understand because it is completely artificial and without perspective. There are tons of opportunities to socialize and build relationships besides going out to Toads. Clubs, study groups, hanging out at the lounge in the dorm after class, frisbee on the quad, sports, going to the gym with people, lunch, brunch, dinners at the cafeteria, and so on. It is ridiculous to think that because you aren’t going to dinner on a Friday night that you are missing out on a huge social opportunity for networking. It is one tiny piece in a huge puzzle.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What makes you think that the average Target or Walmart employee could sell women’s fashions for commission at Neiman-Marcus?</p>